President Trump has every right to defend our border and not give in to migrant group's demands

President Trump's announcement that he is prepared to use military resources to deal with a long-simmering border crisis is a welcome response to the vexing influx of illegal arrivals, including those hoping to take advantage of our broken system for handling asylum seekers. Some Democrats are already describing the president's announcement as an act of hate: "President Trump's statements about deploying our military to the U.S.-Mexico border and downplaying the strength of our laws do little more than stoke anti-immigrant hate," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who is ranking member of the Homeland Security committee.

On the contrary, this is a necessary move in the face of rising apprehension over illegal crossers, and the pending arrival of an unusually large, organized "caravan" of more than 1,000 Central American migrants working its way through Mexico, which has declared its intention to gain entry to the United States. The caravan leaders, who are with the U.S.-based migrant solidarity group Pueblo Sin Fronteras, say they are assisting the migrants in asserting their "right" to enter the United States to settle as asylum seekers.

The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit research organization founded in 1985. It is the nation's only think tank devoted exclusively to research and policy analysis of the economic, social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United States.